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  • Products from Azerbaijan receive "registration" in Armenia

    Vestnik Kavkaza, Russia
    July 23 2014

    Products from Azerbaijan receive "registration" in Armenia

    23 July 2014 - 6:37pm


    Unfortunately, on the bazaars of Russia, along with hight-quality and
    legitimate products, dubious products also can be found. Amongh the
    latter are products supplied from the occupied territories of
    Azerbaijan, in particular, canned vegetables and jams made in
    Nagorno-Karabakh. According to the labels, they were produced and
    packed in Stepanakert - Khankendy, an Azerbaijani city, the
    administrative center of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, which in Soviet
    times was named after, Stepan Shaumyan, and when Azerbaijan gained its
    sovereignty, was returned to the city got back its historical name.
    These preserves are being produces and exported to Russia by JSC
    "Artsakh Fruit", also based in the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh and
    registered in Yerevan. The partners "Artsakh Fruit" in Russia are,
    according to the company's website, Moscow CJSC "Crown" and Krasnodar
    LLC "Yugdekor."

    The full address of manufacturing and packaging, indicated on the
    company's products such as letcho and blackberry jam, attracted the
    attention of VK. "Artsakh Fruit" decided on the labeling of the
    product produced in the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, ie de jure
    in Azerbaijan, in contradiction with the official position of not only
    the Republic of Azerbaijan, but also that of Armenia: the labels
    indicate "Armenia, Stepanakert" and "RA Stepanakert"(ie Hankendi).

    These addresses are non-existent. All the world countries recognize
    the Nagorno-Karabakh region and seven surrounding districts as
    sovereign territories of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenian armed forces
    and hence Khankendi, too. The self-proclaimed "Nagorno Karabakh
    Republic", by contrast, is not recognized by any country in the world,
    including Armenia, which exacerbates and complicates the situation
    lwith abeled products from Karabakh, while the only legitimate
    labeling of such a product from the point of view of international law
    is "Azerbaijan, Khankendi."

    VK has decided to ask the experts which Russian laws the manufacturer
    violates, when presenting Hankendi as part of Armeniaon on their
    products.

    As explained in the Society for Consumer Protection, a buyer who
    purchased such goods has "the right to make a claim, demanding a
    refund due to the fact that he has been provided false information
    about the address of the manufacturer." It is possible to get
    additional compensation from the company. "If therefore any damages
    were caused to the consumer, he also has the right to claim
    reimbursement. For example, it may be the moral suffering, if this
    person convincingly proves that if he knew that the product originates
    from the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, nwould not buy it," the
    Society for Consumer Protection explains.

    This case is regulated by Articles 10, 13 and 15 of the Federal Law
    2300-I from July 7, 1992, "On Protection of Consumer Rights. For
    example, Art. 10, Part 2, inter alia, states that "information about
    the goods (works, services) on a mandatory basis should contain ...
    information ... about the date and place of manufacture and packaging,
    ... address (location), (name) manufacturer (executor, seller,
    authorized organization or an authorized individual entrepreneur, or
    importer)." This article obliges the manufacturer to indicate correct
    addresses relating to the goods.

    Art. 13 establishes the liability for incorrect information on
    the product. Art. 13, Part 2 states: "Unless otherwise provided by
    law, the damages caused to the consumer shall be reimbursed in full in
    addition to the penalty (fine), established by law or contract."

    Art. 15 speaks of compensation for non-pecuniary damage. "Moral
    damage to the consumer as a result of violation by the manufacturer
    (executor, seller, authorized body or authorized by an individual
    entrepreneur, importer) of the consumer's rights, protected by the
    laws and regulations of the Russian Federation, must be compensated by
    the tortfeasor in the presence of his guilt. The amount of
    compensation for moral damage is determined by the court and does not
    depend on the amount of compensation for the property damage."

    However, the fact of "including" Khankendi to Armenia has a more
    subtle economic dimension. As the head of the laboratory of the Gaidar
    Institute for International Trade Economic Policy, Alexander Knobel,
    notes, by this way the company gets the customs privileges for which
    it actually has no rights, which means that the importation of goods
    into Russia is illegal. "Armenia is a member of the WTO with its the
    internationally recognized borders, without Nagorno-Karabakh. Russia
    has an agreement with Armenia on free trade zone within the CIS, and
    this agreement was also signed within internationally recognized
    borders, again without Nagorno-Karabakh. This means that one cannot
    apply zero tariffs on products produced outside of Armenia in its
    legal boundaries - if only because the goods has already illegally
    crossed the customs border of Armenia and Russia," says Knobel.

    According to the expert, the same can be said about importing goods
    produced in Nagorno-Karabakh by the firms registered in Armenia in any
    other country which gives Armenian businessmen preferential customs
    conditions. "If Armenia has certain agreement on preferential
    treatment of foreign economic relations in general or any trade
    agreement, Karabakh definitely cannot be included in these agreements
    . So the trade regime, which applies to Armenian products should not
    be applied to the goods from Nagorno-Karabakh," he adds.

    With regard to the sanctions which may be imposed on such firms,
    Russian law requires revision, Knobel stresses. "It all depends on
    whether there are formal documents regarding restrictions on trade in
    goods. The problem is that if there are no such documents, it is
    difficult to legally punish anyone. There are resolutions of the UN
    Security Council stating thst Nagorno-Karabakh is an occupied
    territory of Azerbaijan, but it is quite possible that in Russia there
    are no special documents relating to the ban on the export of goods
    from there. Probably, back then the problem of exporting goods from
    Karabakh was so small compared to other issues of the Nagorno-Karabakh
    conflict, that nobody thought about formalizing it," says the expert.

    However, this does not mean that imports from the occupied
    Nagorno-Karabakh by Armenian companies into Russia can not be
    officially banned in the future. "I stress that if Azerbaijan
    initiates this question, it has all the chances on the international
    level to adopt the documents on the ban on trading goods from
    Karabakh," concludes Alexander Knobel.

    http://vestnikkavkaza.net/news/politics/58059.html




    From: A. Papazian
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